"He said YES!"

Oi family and friends

GUESS WHAT GUESS WHAT
Nadson will be baptized this FRIDAY. WHAT. This is a miracle. I am so happy.  Nadson was one of the first investigators i met on my mission 5 months ago. For 5 months I've worked with him and invited him to read the book of mormon and pray and for 5 months he didnt. For 5 months he didnt want anything to do with baptism. He was shy and closed off and didnt really care to listen to our messages. For a short amount of time we gave up a little bit on him. But we really felt like we needed to try again this transfer. we prayed and fasted so hard for him. And these past few weeks i have seen such a change in him. And tuesday night we ran into him in the chapel and started talking and i felt so impressed to invite him to be baptized friday march 3rd. It was weird because we werent in a lesson but i just felt like i should so i talked with my companion and we invited him. and he said yes. HE SAID YES. We visited him every day this weekk because i was scared that he would change his mind or something. But no. Hes so happy! He so excited! Hes a differnt person! Im so happy. He will be baptized friday i dont believe what im typing!
haha but i have such a testimony that the spirit can change a person. His mom is so happy. Shes a recent convert and whne i called her and told her he accepted baptism she thought i was joking but after started crying and screaming haha. You all just wait for the ahppy baptism photos next week!
i have never felt so much joy/frustration/sadness/annoyance for the lives of other people before. i have never been so concerned for the lives of other people before. Honestly it's exhausting. but its great too because i can forget my own issues (a lot) for a minute. Helping others is the best part about this work.

Every day is hard but also every day I see really cool things and meet really cool people. I know this isnt supposed to be easy. Because if it was easy then it wouldnt mean anything. Every day when we talk to peopel in the street they say "you arent from here are you?" haha and then i say nop im from america and then they say what what the heck are you doing here! and then i get to tell them why i left my family and home and life and came to dirty sweaty brazil haha. but its cool because what an opportunity to bear my testimony of this work. Oh man i miss my family and home. but its just a short time more. and i still have to find a family to baptize and bring to this happiness before i can come home haha.
all will be well. missionary work is so cool!! the gift of tongues is real! A boy in the ward here got his mission call to japan this past week. his mom just about died. I told her my mom felt just about the same way about me coming here. but it was cool because i was able to talk to felipe about the gift of tongues and the reality of it. I know japanese is way harder than portuguese but people i never thought i could learn any language and here i am with 5 months in my mission able to speak and understand almost everything. and i know its not me. im not a very smart girl i know that. but i am with the spirit and with god. and so i know the gift of tongues is real.
well. i love you all so much. my freinds and cousins and aunt and uncles and gmas and gpas and family. i wish i could name you all and just tell u all how cool i think you are. thank you for your love and support and prayers.
tchau tchau
sister lytle

"Little girl I taught who had a Buddy bunny, I cried"

Oi from Brazil!
This week was great and we are finding new people to teach and its just awesome. Oh something cool..we had 12 investigators at church on sunday. 12. TWELVE. DOZEN. WHAT. I didnt believe my eyes but God heard our prayers and we are just seeing miracles.
We had a zone conference this week in Salvador which was super awesome. I learned alot because now i can actually understand what people are saying! YAA! We learned about the importance of working with members. Its so true that we have so much more success when the members help out by giving us references or by visiting people with us. WE also learned about the importance of daily repentance. This is something that I never really grasped the importance of before my mission. We need to be repenting everyday because surely everyday we make mistakes. But we need to be humble enough to ask for this forgiveness everyday and try to be a little better the next. Also especially as missionaries we cant walk around telling people they need to repent if we arent repenting ourselves. But im learning and gaining more of a testimony that repentance truly is a gift from god because without it we cant ever return to his presence.
We are working really hard with Nadson and set a new date for baptism for March 4th. He is still struggling and saying he has fear but we arent sure of what yet. But i have so much faith in him and he comes to church every week in a white shirt and he goes to the activities too! i have been working with nadson since the first day in the field-almost 5 months! I have seen such a change in him and i know he will be ready by the 4th..he just has to believe that himself.
We also are tecahing a girl names Melissa. Shes 9 and will be baptized on the 4th as well. She is awesome and is super excited to be baptized but still has alot to learn. I love teaching kids about the gospel because everything is so much simpler and they are so honest and sincere. Her mom is a reccent convert and has been helping us out alot.
My companion is the best. She is so funny. Heres a story for everyone to have a good laugh:
So the other day she found a butterfly cocoon on the ground and decided she wanted to bring it home and build a home for it. i wanted to say ummm are you 5 years old? but i was nice and said ok go ahead instead.
She talked about this butterfly everyday. she would say "oh my companion, one day it will come out of the cocoon and be so beautiful" and i went along with it but i was pretty sure it was dead since it was on the ground and since it had been sitting inside our house for like 4 days. Didnt want to break my companions heart though. well the other night i was just starting to fall asleep when she starts yelling "SISTER SISTER!!" and then i feel something hit me square in the head. WELL JUST GUESS WHAT IT WAS. We turned the lights on and there is the biggest ugliest moth ive ever seen in my life. Im not kidding this thing was huge. size of a small bird. So theres this weird brazilian moth flying around our house and my companion running after it with a cup yelling "MELISSA AUBREY!" (she named it both of our first names lol)
anyways we opened the windows and waited in sheer terror for this weird moth butterfly bird thing to leave for like 20 minutes. And then finally it flies out the window and my sister torquato looks at me with tears in her eyes (im not kidding) and says in english "Melissa Aubrey is gone..my baby is gone" hahahahha i have never laughed so hard.
Anyways that was my week. Taught lots of cool people and am learning so much about our savior jesus christ and what he did for us and the plan our heavenly father has for us. we are so lucky to have this knowledge. what happiness it brings and what comfort in times of anxiety.
I miss you all! I love you all!
sister lytle tchau!

my wall

Lots of teaching English going on!

I have a new companion! Sister Torquato!

She's awesome. She really wants to learn english so everytime shes sees something she asks what it is in english. then i tell her and she repeats it with the worst accent ive ever heard. just imagine how she must feel with me and my portuguese everyday! The other day we were walking down the street and she looks at me and says (in english) "my blood is red" hahah i couldn't stop laughing and i asked her if she knew what she had said and she said no. i told her in Portuguese and she couldn't stop laughing either. not sure where she learned that and not gonna lie it freaked me out a little.

Speaking of english I taught an english class this week! it was awesome and a bunch of people showed up. it was super hard not to laugh at everyones accents.  They LOVE english here. they love it so much but no one knows how to speak it. haha

My English class!

Ana Luiza was baptized on Saturday!

She is so awesome and so happy. So many people came to see her be baptized. It was a very happy day for me because Ana Luiza and her family were some of the first people i met in my mission and they have helped me so much and I'm glad i got to be a part of helping her get baptized.

Nadson came to church again!! But this time... In a white shirt!! I could've cried i was so happy. Hopefully he will let us set a baptism date for him soon. We are working so hard with him.
I also gave a talk yesterday in church and let me tell ya if you think giving a talk in english is scary, try it in portugeuse. i was a nervous wreck but i got through it haha. I spoke about obedience and it was really awesome to be able to study and learn a little more about obedience and how important it is. i spoke about jesus christ and his example of obedience when he atoned for our sins in the garden of gethsemane. He didn't have to do that because he is perfect. at any moment he could've said, no im not doing this, this is too hard. But he knew his purpose and he knew he needed to be obedient to Heavenly Father. In matthew 26,  He asks twice if there is any other way 2 times but he also says "not my will but thine be done" "não seja como eu quero, mas como tu queres."
 He performed this act for every person who ever lived- the hardest thing that ever was done or ever will be done out of pure love. I cant even tell you the love i feel from this. I know that jesus christ truly atoned for our sins. I know he did it because it was the plan of heavenly father and he knew he needed to be obedient. When i struggle i think- ok, jesus already felt this he felt it so that he could help me to go through it today. he felt it because he loves me. I can obey i can continue on. Becasue of all he did for me i can serve and obey.
We went to the home of a woman named Joselha the week. We met her in the street and she said we could visit her in her home. We arrived at her house and she didn't seem so excited to let us in or talk to us in general. But she let us in. I felt super uncomfortable at first but as soon as we sat down i felt like i just needed to start asking questions about her family and life. She talked about her family and their struggles. she cried. She told us she didnt have a religion (super rare here)  but she believes in god. She poured her heart out to us. I sat there wondering why some random woman was so willing to tell us all about her life and problems. I realized that she must be so lonely and so in need of people who love her and care for her.
Never in my life have I experienced so much love for complete strangers as I have in my mission so far. it so cool to realize that we truly are all brothers and sisters and we are here to help and love each other.
Joselha said that we could return to her home ths next week and teach her the first lesson. It was so cool to bear testimony of the happiness this gospel bring into the lives of even the most discouraged sad people to talk about Jesus Christ and that he already felt what she's feeling and all she has to do is pray to find help and love.

Being a missionary is the coolest. The people here are incredible. I will never forget them and their examples and love. I realized the other day that I will hit my 6 month mark in Camaçari. I will have spent 1/3 of my mission here and i think that means its pretty special in my life and there were people here I really needed to meet and learn from. I learn more from these people than they learn from me and thats for sure.

 sol isso. I miss you all. I love you all!!

tchau! sister lytle

Four months!

OI FAMILY AND FRIENDS-
HAPPY FEBRUARY. I've been in brazil for 4 months and today i saw an iguana. So cool stuff happening.
So the transfer is tomorrow and i will be staying in Camaçari! I will be getting a new companion though- Sister Torquato. She is from Rio De Janeiro and we were in the CTM together! Im excited to meet her and get to work!
This Saturday we will have a baptism for Ana Luiza! Ana Luiza is the grand daughter of Irma Haidee and she is so cute. She is 9 so technically shes an investigator but not really because she already knows everything about the church and shes been going her whole life. Her mom didnt allow her to be baptized last year but now she is letting her! Im so excited.
One of our investigators Auzenie is progressing well. Her family is all members and she knows alot about the church but she hasnt been baptized because she always works on sundays. We have seen so much progress and i think even little miracles with her these past few weeks. We taught her about the importance and blessings of the gospel and of church attendance and the spirit is always really strong. This week she told us how she has been feeling a desire to come to church again. She said she doesnt want to work on sundays anymore. And she said that lately she has been feeling very strongly like she needs to read the scriptures. She said sometimes she hears a voice in her head telling her to read. We told her that this is the spirit and how important is is to follow those promptings. I have faith in her and we are going to try and make sure she gets to church this sunday.
Something that we do sometimes is walk up to people on the street and ask is we can pray with them. Its the scariest thing ever because you have to be really bold. But its been such a cool experience for me. We pray with probably 20 people on the street everyday because the people here love god and know hes real and love to pray to him. Well i felt so impressed to pray l with a man sitting alone in the middle of this park yetsreday. I felt really nervous and scared but i looked at my companion and said "vamos orar come aquele homem" and we went and we prayed with him and i have never seen someone so thankful and happy in my life. As we walked away i looked back and saw that he was smiling and watching us walk away with a smile i will never ever forget. The people here have so much faith. They love to pray. i felt gods love so strong for this little old man. Sometimes all people need is a prayer. to feel of gods love for them. And thats a cool part about this work is that there are so many times that i forget that i am only here to be an instrument in the hands of god. To do as he would do and to use spirit to find those people who need the gospel. for 18 months i get to work for god and only god. i get to forget myself and my own doubts and insecurities and speak with his spirit and just have the faith that it will be ok. Its really not about me. i am not doing anything. i am nothing without god and i realize that more and more everyday. There is NO way im doing this by myself.
I have been studying humility amd i came across a quote i really liked
"HUMILITY INCLUDES GRATITUDE FOR GODS BLESSINGS AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF OUR CONSTANT NEED FOR HIS DIVINE HELP. HUMILITY IS NOT A SIGN OF WEAKNESS; IT IS A SIGN OF SPIRITUAL STRENGTH."
I have never had to rely on god more in my whole life. I have never cried so much or felt more nervous and inadequate in my life. But because of this i have never prayed so much and seen god helping me so much in my life. Through these hard experiences i recognize more that god is so real. I recognize that prayer works and we can find peace in a hard moment if we just get on our knees and speak to him and ask him for his divine help.
I have been humbled by this work already and i know i will learn more as time goes on. This is the hardest thing ive ever done hands down. but i think one day ill say its the best decision i ever made. I have alreday learned so much and ive been changed already by the things ive experienced.
I wish i had a funny story this week but i cant think. honestly just sacrament meeting here is the funniest most entertaining thing. I have never seen a meeting move so slowly in my life. The hymns take 3 years to get through because evryone draws out there words for like minute a word. i swear somtimes everything is moving in slow motion haha. The people are just so laid back. Its honestly great.
Well i think thats all i got. oh but pls pray for me because i have to give a talk in sacrament meeting this sunday and bishop asked me to teach an english class on thursday nights.

ok love u all. thank u for your emails i wish i had time to write you all back and tell you how cool i think you all are.

AMO VOCÊS.

TCHAU sister lytle